SEX, LIES AND SMOKING
Master Course in Hypnotism – Peter Diamond
Well, this is the biggest heap of junk ever. I was pulled in, obviously, by the breasts on the cover. This really is an epic picture and one that I hope we scan and make into a fridge magnet, if not the central image of one of my future academic posters. The dinner-jacketed, male, standing, hypnotist; the topless (naked?), female, reclining participant; the beams coming from his eyes to her face; the smirk on his face; the questionable stance. Like, what exactly are his hands planning on doing?
There is no date on this 62-page booklet, but it mentions the 1972 amendments to the 1952 Hypnotism Act. It was apparently type-written and photocopied, so presumably before the era of desktop publishing that was in full flow by the 1990s. It also includes the author’s address on the last page, so clearly was from a time before crime, fear, or sensible precautions.
Peter himself was actually a magician. A quick Google threw up some info on him, an obituary, and some publicity photographs, one of which looks suspiciously similar to the cover of this booklet, except his participant is clothed in the photo. The booklet came in an A4 envelope with the same image as the booklet cover. Knowing how magicians operate, I imagine this was sold after magic shows to the public, and the sealed envelope doubled both as a “Secrets Inside!” sales tool and also as “No reading before buying!” protection against informed purchasing decisions.
Because, honestly, if you had a minute to flick through this, you wouldn’t be buying it. As a booklet it can’t decide if it is a ‘master course’ in hypnotism, “Learn how to hypnotise in the shortest possible time” as promised on the cover, a self-hypnosis course, an essay on self-improvement, or a smoking cessation product, either for the reader to consume or for the reader to present to someone else. I imagine the same product came with multiple different covers, one for each of the possible ways it could be sold. I just hope he didn’t have the audacity to sell more than one copy to the same person.
Hypnosis knowledge is so scant it is barely worth mentioning at all. Certainly there is no mention of breasts, or even really anything heading towards a hypnosis session where the participant is at all unclothed. I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest that the cover might have miss-sold this booklet. I find it joyful that this exists in the world, but I am also ashamed that it could still be created today and find an audience.
